could it be celiac?

[ny12345]

I am searching for answers for my husband. He recently had a seizure in his sleep and his MRI shows lesions suggestive of MS. He had some vertigo this past summer but other than that all neurological functions are normal. He has no headaches, vision problems, fatique or anything else along those lines. His blood work is negative for lyme, cbc is normal etc. His ANA was elevated at 1:160 but no  one thinks he has lupus based on this. He also has no other lupus symptoms other than the seizure and vertigo. BUT he has always had digestive issues. He has heartburn, indigestion, and diarrea (diarrhea) from time to time. He sometimes has bloating and gas. I'm sure these are all mild in the celiac world, but he has had many more gastro symptoms over his life than neuro symptoms so I started to wonder about Celiac.

[CalGal]

In some cases, celiac can mimic MS including the lesions that are found with an MRI. You may want to have his genes checked for celiac - can be done for about $150 via enterolab.com. If he's carrying the genes, I'd suggest you consider starting a gluten-free diet and see what happens.

[GottaSki]

Celiac Disease has many symptoms...I didn't have severe gastro problems until about 2 years ago, but did have a multitude of symptoms that never lead to diagnosis until we finally got a hit on my tTG IgA blood test last March..

Your husband's symptoms warrarnt running a celiac blood panel.  Do not go gluten free until testing is finished.  If the blood tests are positive, the GI will want to do and endoscopy to examine for villa atrophe and take biopsy to aid in diagnosis.

There are frequent negative results in bloodwork...mine were only minimally positive, yet the endo showed extreme damage and the biopsies were positive.

If you have a negative blood result, the best thing to determine Celiac is to go gluten free -- you can not do this part way -- there must be NO gluten consumed.  If Celiac your husband should have some improvement within the first month, but depending on age it can take up to two years to heal the damage from Celiac.

If you'd like more info on Celiac...Google Univ of Chicago Celiac or UCSD Celiac...both have excellent websites to help understand Celiac Disease.

Good Luck!